We are looking at how handheld devices, such
as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) like Palms and PocketPCs, can be
helpful to people with physical disabilities. This research is currently
progressing along two tracks. First, we are studying the use of a PDA
as an alternative input device for computers, and second, we are looking
at how to automatically create remote controls for everyday appliances
that will be usable by people with disabilities. We believe that by using
commercial, off-the-shelf hardware and adapting software which also has
significant mainstream usefulness, we can provide increased benefits at
low cost to people with disabilities.

People with Muscular Dystrophy (MD) and
certain other muscular and nervous system disorders such as Cerebral Palsy
(CP) may lose their gross motor control while retaining fine motor control.
The result is that they may have difficulty operating a mouse and keyboard.
However, they can often still use their fingers to control a pencil or
stylus, and thus can use a handheld computer such as a Palm. In our first
track of research, we have developed two programs, called RemoteCommander
and Shortcutter, that allow the handheld to substitute for the mouse and
keyboard of a PC. RemoteCommander
allows all keyboard and mouse functions to be performed using the PDA,
and includes support for word completion and word prediction. Shortcutter
allows custom panels of controls to be created, to make it easier to perform
specific common or difficult functions in specific applications. Our tests
with a variety of children and adults show that this software can be very
useful for some people.

As our second track, we are creating a "Personal
Universal Controller" (PUC) that allows graphical and speech
user interfaces to be automatically created as remote controls for everyday
appliances. Research is progressing in three areas: how to create high-quality
graphical user interfaces from a high-level specification that will take
into account user preferences, how to create speech interfaces automatically
for appliances (this work is being performed by the Universal
Speech Interfaces group), and how to connect our interfaces to real
appliances. A PUC will enable people who have visual and physical disabilities
to have access to a wider range of functions on a wider range of appliances.
We are coordinating with the InterNational Committee for Information Technology
Standards (INCITS) Standards
Development Committee on Information Technology Access Interfaces
(V2) to help with the Alternative Interface Access Protocol (AIAP) which
has similar goals to our PUC.

Ten-year old Jennifer Rossman of New York
has found the Remote Commander and
Shortcutter programs to be very
valuable as a replacement for the keyboard and mouse. Jennifer has a form
of Muscular Dystrophy known as Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Type II.

We are interested in further studying how these hand-held
computers can help people with disabilities. We are offering free Palm
devices to a limited number of people in the Pittsburgh area who have
disabilities and might find the existing applications useful. (Even if
you are not selected for the study, you might find the software to be
useful. See http://www.pdacontrols.com/
for pictures and instructions on how it can be downloaded for free.)

We are also interested in forming collaborations with
other researchers interested in this topic, and in other uses of a hand-held
device to aid people with disabilities. If this software may benefit you
or someone you know, please contact Brad
A. Myers.

You can download the standard Pebbles distribution, which
has all the standard Pebbles applications, including RemoteCommander and
Shortcutter. See the standard download page.

For the Palm, we have a special download for the software
for people with disabilities, that has the latest (undocumented and only
partially tested) versions (click on the link below). This might be better
for people with disabilities. Use the regular
download instructions. This download also includes two testing programs
useful for measuring the speed and accuracy of typing and selecting objects.

Ability to hit hotsync while in RemoteCommander, and
have the PC automatically switch to hotsync and return to PebblesPC.

Word prediction in RemoteCommander! To use the
new word prediction mechanism, you will need to load RmtCmdWords.pdb
from the Palm directory onto your Palm. Note this big file takes a long
time to load--maybe 1/2 hour! So just be patient. Then go to
the Options/Preferences screen on the Palm and choose the Word Prediction
option.

If you load both RmtCmdWords.pdb
and RmtCmdWordsBk.pdb into the Palm (which will take twice as long!),
then the option to reset the Palm's database of word predictions will
be available. We will use this to make comparison measurements of speed
and prediction accuracy.

The PC side of Remote Commander can log all the keystrokes
for analysis. In PebblesPC, hit Plugins..., then select RemoteControl
and hit Preferences.

Sorry, there is no documentation yet for the special
download or its programs.

I am the father of a handicapped child. She has a form of Muscular Dystrophy
know as "Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Type II." I would, first,
like to let you know how valuable a tool the remote commander has been
to her. The range of motion she possesses is limited and we have found
this Palm application to be of the greatest assistance.

Secondly, I would like with your permission to possibly expand the use
of this software, to what I am sure is a group of folks out there, who
unknown to them, an alternative to expensive assistive devices is available.
I would like to via the Muscular Dystrophy Association, possibly let others
know that they to can partake of this, what I view as, an extremely important
tool to those less fortunate.

Funding

Partially funded by a grant from NSF.
2003-2006. "Using Handhelds to Help People with Motor Impairments."
This research is funded in part by the National Science Foundation under
Grant No. UA-0308065. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
reflect those of the National Science Foundation.